


Episode 19: A Proper Lesson

by PitoyaPTx



Series: Clan Meso'a [19]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clan Meso'a, Fantasy Culture, Fantasy Religion, Gen, Mandalorian, Mandalorian Culture, Worldbuilding, religion in Star Wars, warrior culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 03:17:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18490225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitoyaPTx/pseuds/PitoyaPTx
Summary: "Too many names, too many places!" ~CaraA proper education begins with a competent teacher and plenty of pictures.





	Episode 19: A Proper Lesson

Jecho laid out a thick brown holodisc onto the center of the table. Tapping the side, the disc hummed to life and projected a large image into the center of the room.   
“This,” she gestured to the floating orb, “Is Meso’kaan.”  
Cara’s eyes roamed over the three large continents separated by wide rivers connecting to oceans on either side of the Western continent and a hoop-shaped river separating the northern continent from the other two. The Eastern continent looked rather flat with the south dominated by an industrial center of some kind; the northern portion looked like a sprawling city, leaving the center a kind of farmland. The Northern continent, about half the size of the East, looked like Aviila’s village on steroids. In the middle of the villas and several miles-long market area, there was a bustling spaceport, cantinas with huge neon signs, and some kind of arena.   
“We are here,” Jecho said, pointing to the Western continent as the planet slowly rotated around.   
“The foothills?” asked Cara.   
Jecho nodded. “The Clan lives exclusively in the West. The non-clan, indigenous members, tourists, non-Meso’a workers, live in the North and East.”   
“The West is just for Mandalorians?”  
“Mhm.”   
“Oh.”   
Aviila twitched, but said nothing. Jecho tapped the disc again once the Eastern continent was back in view. The land was magnified, allowing Cara to see the homes, farms, and factories in better detail. The homes weren’t unlike the buildings of the village, but they were slightly larger and tightly packed together. Speeders seemed to be the preferred method of travel and it didn’t look like any of the pack animals she’d seen so far would even fit down the narrow corridors between the housing complexes. Speaking of which, she didn’t see any of the grassy parks or vents in the sidewalk leading down to the underground galleys.   
“Are there no warriors over there?” she asked, “I haven’t seen…,” but she trailed off. Aviila had shifted uncomfortably and cleared her throat.   
“The farms, Jecho,” Aviila pointed to the sprawling fields.   
“Yes,” she moved the image with her hand, “they grow the majority of the planet’s crops here. We do have some farmland of our own, courtesy of the rich soil mixtures the Storm Harpies produce-”  
“What’s a Storm Harpie?”   
Jecho blinked and turned to Aviila, “You...you really haven’t told her much?”  
Aviila shook her head, “There wasn’t a whole lot of time.”   
Something about her tone made Cara feel...rushed, if that was the right word for it. She was rubbing her wrist again, her eyes distant like they had been at lunch yesterday. Jecho seemed unsure of how to continue. She was wringing the shaft of her polearm between her hands and staring at nothing in particular. After a moment, she looked up at Cara.   
“I think I should do that first..yes,” she said, reaching over and turning the holo disc off. Meso’kaan vanished; Jecho stowed the disc back into her bag, pulled up a chair, and sat a foot away from Cara.   
“I’m going to tell you a long story,” she began, “It’s complicated, but you’ll need to get used to that if you’re going to be a Chibala.”   
Cara gulped, but nodded respectfully. Jecho took a deep breath, glanced over at Aviila, then sat up straight.   
“I’m going to recite it like they did for us when we first learned about it, so bear with me,” she took another deep breath and closed her eyes…

“Tome 4, The Mother:   
“Enad, hear me. Enad, see me. Hear me speak. See me as I am: Enad, Haria Enad. Know this, know that what I say is true.  
“I speak now of The Mother. I speak of The Mother, Rahast Choxul, of her first trip around our stars. I speak of her descent from the heavens. The great, horned beast of both beauty and terror came to this place of grass and dirt. She leapt down from the sky with a mighty crash! She dug her hooves into the ground and laughed at how it buckled under her might. She raced from end to end, tearing up the soil and cackling. In her mirth, she bit her own tongue. Blood rushed down her chin, but she cared not. The Mother drew first blood, the first blood our lands would feel.  
“Her blood soaked into the soil. It drank its fill and began to change. The Mother lept back as trees grew up around her hooves; she marveled at the wriggling entities swirling about her ankles: creatures of the air! Beasts began to claw their way out of the ground, began to swipe at one another and growl. Their anger made her delighted, and she stomped her hooves in celebration at the chaos below. The creatures shuddered and ran away, afraid of The Mother. Rahast laughed harder and cried out to the heavens. Her hands, her eyes, the Vin Xostyachi trotted down on rays of light and circled around her greedy face. She hissed with her bloody, forked tongue and demanded they round up the animals. She demanded they bow to her, they recognize her as the giver of life, the first blood. They were her Enad, the first children. They must recognize her as Mother.  
“Enad, hear me. The beasts were brought. Enad, the first Enad, stood before the Mother and cowered. She cackled and shrieked, delighting in their fear. She gazed hungrily at the assembly till her eyes fell upon Jiiya, proud Jiiya. He towered above his brethren with his tusks and many throats. He alone could see the face of The Mother. He alone did not fear her. He alone hated her. She surveyed him with surprise but smiled, bearing her many jagged teeth. She snatched him up into the air with her clawed hands, and brought him to her face.  
“Jiiya,” her voice boomed, “You see me as I am and yet you do not worship me as Mother. Why?”  
“Could Jiiya speak, he may have died right then. But, Jiiya growled with all his throats and swiped at her face. Jiiya, taker of the second blood, was cast down to the ground. Rahast screamed in outrage, clutching her injured eye and digging her hooves so far into the ground that she left deep pits behind. Through the blood streaming down her cheek, she cried:  
“Jiiya, you tower above your brethren. You look upon the face of The Mother and yet you strike her as an enemy. Know this: you will hold dominion over this planet. You will feast upon the plants, the beasts of the land, creatures of the sea, and all those who beat the skies. You will rule them, terrify them, but not forever. Not your children, nor their children, but the children born thrice from you will grow fat and lazy under my suns. They will laze about in the shade, swim in the waters, and lumber through the trees without so much of a thought as to where their next meal will come from. This is folly! For I will send to them ruin and pain! I will send them fear to eat and blood to drink! I will send ropes to bind them, thieves to rob them of their ill fated power! Haria Enad! Remember their battlecry when your kits cry in their nests! Fear my Haria Enad!”  
“In her anger, Rahast tore a hole in the heavens with her mighty antlers and unleashed the floodgates, drowning a third of the beasts assembled and depositing the rest into the many pits and gorges her hooves had left in her wake. Those unlucky enough to be swept into the waters were never seen in that form again. Rahast cursed them to never walk upon the ground again. Those unlucky enough to claw their way to safety were cursed to wander aimlessly, attacking anyone who came across their path  
“Jiiya weathered all of this, caring for neither those who died nor those who survived. Jiiya cared only for the raging monster retreating into the sky.  
“Rahast returned to her place in the stars and watched as her curses bathed the earth in the third blood: the blood of war. As foretold, the Jiiya reigned supreme. Jiiya and his children slashed, tore, and crushed all those in their path. They tore up the ground with their claws, upended trees with their tusks, and dragged down from the skies the beasts foolish enough to flee from them. Jiiya knew he could not save his children from the curses of The Mother, but he heeded her warning about Haria Enad. He never let those words leave the lips of his offspring, and yet they still grew fat and lazy. They began to eat the sick and the elderly, no longer chasing down their prey as their mothers had taught them. They no longer used their many throats to snare their enemies. Enad, hear me! Taker of the second blood, Jiiya, had reached his end and the other beasts knew it!  
“It began with Dunuul, sweeper of the shores. She protected her eggs by blinding a Jiiya with her brightly colored scales. Then, Chochoma, prowler of the grasslands, lead a Jiiya to her death by leading her into a gorge she could not climb out of. When the rains came, she was drowned by the rapids. In the mountains came Nagut, sky screecher, and his wings cloaked in lightning. He soared across the cliffs just out of reach of a pack of hungry Jiiya, sending them all to their deaths on the rocks below. Finally, Xalaraac, eyes of blood, tangled her enormous body around the legs of a Jiiya, finishing him off with her fatal bite.  
“Enad, see me. Enad, hear me as the Jiiya did. Jiiya heard of the deaths of his children. Jiiya gathered the rest to him. Jiiya laid down, and bade them to do the same. Jiiya closed his eyes. Jiiya grew still. All grew still. All heard the cry, “Haria Enad!”  
“Takers of the fourth blood, children of ruin, Haria Enad, descended on the Jiiya. Our ancestors, curses made real in the blood and bones of the beasts slain by the Jiiya, erupted from all sides. They slaughtered many, bound the others in ropes made from fibers and skins. They took the tusks of the old, lining them up along the cliffs with pyres made from the carcasses of the fallen Jiiya. There they waited for three days. There they waited for The Mother. There they waited.  
“But The Mother never came.  
“Rahast abandoned them. Rahast Choxul, taker of the first blood, cared not for them. Avengers of the second blood, born of the third blood, takers of the fourth blood, demanded an audience. They demanded she recognize what they had done, but she said nothing. Jiiya, tuskless and dying in the flames, laughed. He laughed at them, finally understanding the madness of the Blood-Mother.  
He laughed, and he died.”


End file.
